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Growing Pains Of VoIP: Managing Customer Care |
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The Growing Pains Of VoIP: Managing Customer Care
January 21, 2005
By Michelle L. Hankins
With the emergence of VoIP, several customer care challenges must be addressed if service rollout is to be successful. Today there is no common way in which providers are offering VoIP. Instead, as these providers roll out VoIP services, they are doing so with different products, different marketing messages and different OSS in the background. What exists in the back office ultimately affects the customer service representatives and the quality of customer care, says Yaron Raps, VoIP practice lead at Business Edge.
"You have to involve customer care from day one," Raps advises. From the moment a provider thinks about rolling out VoIP services, it should be considering how customer care fits into the equation. He has witnessed big carriers leaving customer care to the last minute and paying the price. "They're almost on the way out the door and they say, 'We have to involve customer care.' That's a disaster," he says.
VoIP more closely follows the Dell model of self-service. A customer who wants VoIP must get a telephone adapter, which is subsidized or highly rebated in a retail scenario. To obtain this adapter, the customer can self-order via the Web, receive the necessary equipment within days from a provider and then begin using the new connection. "It is a self-service product," says AT&T's Catherine Bagin, vice president of marketing and product for CallVantage.
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Posted by vonage on Monday, January 24 @ 00:00:00 UTC
(737 reads)
Read More: Growing Pains Of VoIP: Managing Customer Care
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New York’s Broadband Gaps |
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New York’s Broadband Gaps
January 21, 2005
By Laura Forlano
In seven neighborhoods in New York City, businesses still can’t get high-speed Internet access (known as broadband) at prices they can afford according to a new reportby the Center for an Urban Future. These neighborhoods include Long Island City, Williamsburg, Hunts Point, Red Hook, Sunset Park, DUMBO, the Brooklyn Navy Yard and several other commercial areas.
“It is unacceptable that in huge areas of the city, in some of the fastest growing business sectors, small businesses have to choose between dial-up access and broadband that costs $1000 a month or more,” said City Councilmember Gale Brewer, the head of the Technology in Government Committee, who is leading the council’s investigation of this issue. “There has been a market failure in providing affordable broadband access – a failure that is hobbling the economic growth of businesses outside of Manhattan.”
The “broadband gap” is a problem because the high-speed, “always-on” Internet is critical for New York’s economic competitiveness since the neighborhoods affected are the areas with the greatest potential for growth in industries such as health services, the arts, film and music production, air transportation and food production, which typically locate their offices outside of Manhattan’s central business districts.
Broadband refers to the high-speed Internet delivered in a variety of ways -- over copper wires by the telecommunications company (called a “digital subscriber line” or DSL), cables by the TV company, a T-1 line, fiber optics or wireless. The benefits of broadband include the ability to use much cheaper (sometimes even free) telecommunications services provided by companies such as Vonage, Lingo and Skype, which only work with a high-speed Internet connection. These companies allow you to make phone calls over your Internet connection for a fraction of the cost charged by Verizon. Tech-savvy businesses and non-profit organizations have already started using these alternative services for all of their telecommunications needs in order to save money.
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Posted by vonage on Sunday, January 23 @ 00:00:00 UTC
(1613 reads)
Read More: New York’s Broadband Gaps
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Vonage VoIP Phone Service Gains Ground |
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Phone Service Via Internet Gains Ground; As Competition Grows And Technology Improves, More Consumers Are Considering Bargain-Priced VoIP
January 20, 2005
By Mike Himowitz
Suddenly, everyone wants to be your Internet telephone provider.
Once the province of startups catering to adventurous geeks, Internet telephone service is drawing cable giants, long-distance providers and even regular phone companies into the battle for your communications dollar.
Just this month, Comcast said it would offer telephone service to all of its 21 million cable customers by the middle of next year. Over five years it hopes to snag 8 million of them, which is pretty ambitious considering that only 1 million Americans talk over the Internet today.
Comcast will also have to compete with AT&T, Verizon and a host of smaller outfits with names such as Vonage, Packet8, Primus, VoicePulse and VoiceGlo.
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Posted by vonage on Saturday, January 22 @ 00:00:00 UTC
(1127 reads)
Read More: Vonage VoIP Phone Service Gains Ground
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FCC Chairman Powell is calling it quits today. |
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Vonage writes "From the Wall Street Journal
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
After Michael Powell
January 21, 2005; Page A8
The bad news is that we are told that Michael Powell, one of Washington's better bureaucrats, is calling it quits today after four years at the helm of the Federal Communications Commission. You read it here first. The good news is that his exit affords the Bush Administration an opportunity to re-evaluate its stepchild treatment of telecom policy.
Given the media coverage, you might think Mr. Powell's tenure has been about little more than Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunctions and Howard Stern's potty mouth. In fact, Mr. Powell has spent the past four years focused on much more substantive matters regarding the government's role in overseeing a telecommunications sector that has never been more dynamic.
"
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Posted by vonage on Friday, January 21 @ 18:36:37 UTC
(1017 reads)
Read More: FCC Chairman Powell is calling it quits today.
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Vonage To Launch VoIP Phone Service To Small - Medium Size Companies |
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Stamford, Conn., Firm Picked To Help Launch VoIP Phone Service
January 20, 2005
By Richard Lee
A leading player in the emerging VoIP - voice-over-Internet-protocol industry has chosen a Stamford firm to be a teammate in rolling out a new service to small-to medium-size companies.
Stamford-based S/CM Partners LLC will be one of several representatives of Vonage, as the Edison, N.J.-based broadband telephony provider prepares to offer its new technology across the country within the next several weeks. In preparation for the rollout, S/CM and Vonage conducted a pilot program with companies in southern Connecticut.
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Posted by vonage on Friday, January 21 @ 17:41:05 UTC
(2217 reads)
Read More: Vonage To Launch VoIP Phone Service To Small - Medium Size Companies
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Vonage Poises For UK Marketing Splash |
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Web Phone Firm Vonage Poises For UK Marketing Splash
January 18, 2005
By Kirstin Ridley
LONDON, Jan 18 (Reuters) – Vonage, the cut-price U.S. Internet telephone group, plans a British advertising blitz in April after its first European soft launch met with what it calls “absolutely great” initial customer feedback.
Throwing down the gauntlet to dominant UK telecoms operator BT Group Plc, Vonage Chief Executive and Chairman, Jeffrey Citron told Reuters his first UK customers started signing up 52 minutes after he turned on his UK website on Jan. 1.
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Posted by vonage on Friday, January 21 @ 17:21:46 UTC
(590 reads)
Read More: Vonage Poises For UK Marketing Splash
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Vonage To Attend VoIP Linux And Open Source Conference |
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The Future VoIP And Open Source
January 19, 2005
By Staff
The Southern California Linux Expo has announced plans to host a on the future of open source and voice over IP technologies at SCALE 3x. SCALE 3x, the Third Annual Southern California Linux Expo is the premier grass roots Linux and Open Source conference.
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Posted by vonage on Friday, January 21 @ 00:00:00 UTC
(1522 reads)
Read More: Vonage To Attend VoIP Linux And Open Source Conference
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Consumer Retail Tries To Get Versed In VoIP |
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Consumer Retail Tries To Get Versed In VoIP
January 19, 2005
By Mike Angell
As more consumers and small businesses explore the idea of making phone calls via the Internet, they’ll likely go to a familiar place to learn about the technology: consumer electronics retailers.
But retailers may not be wellequipped to explain the benefits and limitations of Internet calling technology — known as VoIP, or voice over Internet protocol. Informal visits to retailers like Best Buy, Circuit City and Office Depot showed that store employees had the VoIP gear, the displays and the brochures — but little in terms of training and knowledge.
VoIP service providers hope retailers will be an important avenue for selling the service. And retailers say they can provide the in-store help and answer questions most people have about the service. But both sides admit it will take time before VoIP becomes as familiar as other electronics wares.
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Posted by vonage on Thursday, January 20 @ 00:00:00 UTC
(1455 reads)
Read More: Consumer Retail Tries To Get Versed In VoIP
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Vonage VoIP Wireless - New Hotspot |
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Wireless: The New Hotspot For VoIP
January 18, 2005
By Ben King
Just as voice over IP is becoming widely used over wired connections, the technology is also starting to crop up on wireless networks as an cheap alternative to mobile phone service. Ben King looks at the outlook for this space - and the challenges that must be overcome.
Mobiles work pretty well for voice calls. Wi-Fi works pretty well for data. So why on earth would anyone want to run voice calls over Wi-Fi?
Like climbing Mount Everest, the simplest reason for it is: 'Because it's there.'
Once you've found a Wi-Fi hotspot in an airport, your home or office, you have a generous supply of bandwidth, and usually you'll be on an all-you-can-eat tariff. So you might as well run your voice calls over it at no extra cost, and save your mobile bill.
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Posted by vonage on Wednesday, January 19 @ 18:44:59 UTC
(1524 reads)
Read More: Vonage VoIP Wireless - New Hotspot
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Vonage VoIP Linksys Router |
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Vonage: Linksys RT31P2 VoIP Router
January 13, 2005
By Ronny Ko
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2004 was labeled the year for Voice-over-IP (VoIP). The technology has come a long way and it is now a reality that you can cheaply make telephone calls over the internet. The Linksys RT31P2 lets you use your existing handsets.
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Based on Linksys existing and tested router technology, this router comes with two extra phone ports that allow you to continue to leverage your traditional telephone handsets. The two phone ports work independently of each other which allows you to make two separate telephone calls at the same time.
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Posted by vonage on Wednesday, January 19 @ 17:49:06 UTC
(3735 reads)
Read More: Vonage VoIP Linksys Router
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